Religious or Philosophical Beliefs

Detects references to religious or philosophical belief disclosure: religious affiliation, belief system, faith tradition, place of worship, and religious conversion records. GDPR Article 9 lists religious or philosophical beliefs as a special category of personal data with no fixed format — it is detectable only by topic vocabulary. Topic-grade detector, low confidence by design.

Type

keyword_list

Engine

universal

Confidence

low

Confidence justification

Low by design. Religious or philosophical belief is a GDPR Article 9 special category with no fixed format, so it is detected purely by topic vocabulary. Generic words like "believe" or "religion" appear constantly in non-sensitive prose (corporate values statements, educational content); the regex is scoped to full disclosure phrases only, and hits should be paired with corroborative keywords (faith, congregation, worship) to raise precision.

Jurisdictions

global, eu

Regulations

GDPR

Frameworks

ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2

Data categories

pii

Scope

broad

Risk rating

7

Pattern

(?i)\b(?:religious\s+beliefs?|religious\s+affiliations?|philosophical\s+beliefs?|belief\s+systems?|faith\s+traditions?|religious\s+observance|place\s+of\s+worship|religious\s+denominations?|religious\s+conversion\s+record)\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

faith, congregation, worship, clergy, denomination, doctrine, spiritual, religion

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• The intake form records religious affiliation under section 4. — Religious affiliation phrase present
• Profile notes his faith tradition and place of worship. — Faith tradition / place of worship terms present
• HR file documents a religious conversion record from the chaplaincy referral. — Religious conversion record term present
• The census field asks respondents to state their religious beliefs voluntarily. — Religious beliefs phrase present

Should not match

• We believe in transparent pricing for all customers. — Generic corporate "believe", not a belief-system disclosure
• The museum exhibit covered world religions through history. — Topical/educational mention, no personal disclosure phrase
• Religious studies 101 is a required elective this semester. — Academic course listing, no disclosure phrase

Known false positives

• Generic corporate or educational use of "believe"/"religion"/"religious" (values statements, history/comparative-religion content) has nothing to do with a personal belief-disclosure record. Mitigation: The regex targets full disclosure phrases ("religious affiliation", "faith tradition", "religious conversion record") rather than the bare words "believe"/"religion"; require corroborative keywords (faith, congregation, worship, clergy) for confidence.

References

• GDPR Article 9 — processing of special categories of personal data (religious or philosophical beliefs)